Ornithology 103
We came to study the seagulls. When our field trip to the sea didn’t pan out (budget cuts), we caravanned to the dump, fording through oceans of crud to see the […]
Animals
Mammoth Resurrected
Before my birth, father was more than fossil; pickled in tundra, he still had his undercoat of grizzle, teeth, and a knee broken […]
The Death Spiral
The [American bald eagles’]…cartwheel display or death spiral…is chief among their spectacular courtship rituals…The two soar up to high altitude, lock talons, and tumble and cartwheel toward Earth. They let go before reaching the ground—except when they don’t. […]
No Miracle, No Act of God
What should not stay unsaid will grow wild as chicory flowers, as the mushrooms on the damp side of a tree. In that time after sunrise but before the light hits the shore, that time animals know, my father took me in his canoe onto Greenwood Pond. Passing by Flint’s cabin and the A-frames, […]
How to Kill a Rooster
Because he’s spurred you grab him by his neck and his legs Hold him in both your hands Look him in the eye Let him ask if you are to kill him today then tell him yes say yes with your own eye just before you take him to the clothes […]
How to Kill a Hen
Enter the night coop whistling Through your teeth sing In this awful world of sorrow sing In this wicked path of sin Tuck her under your arm and walk away from the laying birds the cuckold-morning rising in their dumb wings Walk away from sleep Make sure […]
How to Plant by the Signs
When the ground is lit when your back, hands, intent are lit full well full dawn of dark when the tide swells (forget sea) when the tide swells in soil unseen root stem leaf when the moon is in its age plant that which rises above the ground to bloom […]
How to Kill a Hog
Do you remember how close you were to her when she was farrowing and she needed you her bawling drawing you out of bed a bad dream how you washed her vulva, soft warm water over your own hands how you scrubbed even your fingernails under your fingernails before […]